Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The $85.00 Diet Dr. Pepper

Monday was the Brat's 7th birthday, so we took her to the Zoo in the Big City 3 Hours Away, instead of our usual trip to the Zoo in the Big City 1 Hour Away. We stayed overnight at a "Bestern Western" and she got to swim in the pool, so the trip was a success.

On the way up, we drove for 10-15 minute stretches of time through absolute nothingness except trees and rocks. No cities, towns, or gas stations.

After one of these sections of nothing, I told MonkeyHusband to pull off at the next exit so I could get a caffeinated beverage. (I had worked the night before, and I was feeling it.)

When I got out to get my Diet Dr. Pepper, I noticed that the rear passenger tire was a little low, so he pulled up to the air thingee to fill it up a little.

A s soon as he put some air in the tire, a strange hissing noise commenced. Now, I don't know much of anything about tires, but I know that when they are hissing, it's bad.

As luck would have it, the service station where we had stopped to purchase my Diet Dr. Pepper was also a tire repair shop of sorts. From the look of their selection, there are a lot of ATVs and lawn mowers in that part of the state.

Nevertheless, the extra from 'Deliverance' who worked there jacked up the car and pulled off the tire to find.....

Well, I don't know what exactly was wrong with it, but I know that the rubber is supposed to be smooth and noiseless, and it was all bubbly and hissing.

He said we were lucky we didn't have a blowout on the freeway.

So they replaced my High Performance Michelin with something that was at least close to the right size, and I went in and bought my Diet Dr. Pepper. Which was now worth $85.00.

And 20 minutes after we got off the freeway, we were getting back on the freeway.

Tomorrow I'm going to have to go in and buy a $160.00 tire to replace the one that will have been on the car for 3 days. So technically, my Diet Dr. Pepper cost $250 bucks.

But at least we didn't have a blowout on a busy interstate on a holiday weekend. Dear God. Can you imagine the nightmare that would have been?

10 comments:

Nurse K said...

Welcome to my world, dude. At least the ex-husband slashes the tires at night so they're obviously not inflated by the time I wake up in the morning, except for once where I ended up driving on the rims for a bit. On my car insurance, I have my tires and tows covered at 100% for like an extra $2/month. So far, I've replaced 5 slashed tires and had 3 tows...It's worth it!!!!!!!!!!

Cheating Death said...

So goes life.... I've had a blow out or two in my day and it cost me a lot more than that 250!

M.E. Again said...

Yeah, that would have been one of those times where you would stand there thinking "I'd write anyone a check for a thousand dollars if they could get me outta this NOW." So, in one sense you got off lucky. Glad it turned out.

MonkeySister said...

Crap! First gas prices go up, now the price on Diet Dr. Pepper! I wonder if I switched back to regular if I could save a buck...

Glad you had fun with the monkeys. Not the ones at the zoo! :)

911DOC said...

don't have your car crash in our town. just sayin'...

Old NFO said...

Glad y'all are okay! But yeah, $250 for a Dr. Pepper is a might high :-)

Don said...

Until I read your last line, I was going to suggest that we tally up what your Dr. Pepper saved you that day. :)

Anonymous said...

Funny how perps on Spike can teach us:

If you do have a blowout, stay on the gas and consider what you're going to do, then make a safe and controlled stop somewhere where you have the room.

I'm glad to hear you dodged one there.

Dragonfly said...

I hope you enjoyed that Dr Pepper...

Anonymous said...

I saw good thing for your caffiene need!
I had low profile high performance tires on my old car that blew out all the time. GO to tirerack.com I used to get my $250 Bridgestone Potenzas for $150 there have them shipped to the local tire place & pay them $20 to mount it. If you have a tire on there and you can wait an extra day for it to be shipped its worthi it